It Pours
by Mikauzoran
Summary: Hakuba has had a wretched night, humiliated by his crush on national television. The next day, things only get worse as his feelings are trampled in front of the class. After school, however, things start looking up as Kaito offers to share his umbrella and the boys come to an understanding.


Mikau: Hey there everyone! Thanks for taking a look. I actually wrote this for the Poirot Café forum's Super Short Contest: Umbrella. I did it last night while taking a break from trying to edit Ai ni Tsuite (On Love) into some semblance of publish-ability. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, there would be more HakuKai bromance. And Hakuba angst. ^.^ The boy needs some backstory and character development.

…...

It Pours

The previous evening had been horrific for Hakuba Saguru. He was still so thoroughly mortified that he wasn't certain he could manage the torment that was high school that day.

The previous evening, he had gotten married—in a mermaid cut wedding dress, on live, national television…to the Kaitou KID. Of course, it wasn't legal or binding by any means, but…that was part of the problem. He would have liked it to be.

He'd fantasied about it occasionally, letting his rigid walls down and allowing himself to indulge in his pitiful crush on the magician. Then last night when KID had grabbed him, slipped that giant opal ring (that night's heist) onto his finger, and kissed him on the cheek, saying "I do"…it had made Saguru's entire being burn with shame and excruciating hurt because this was all a joke to KID. There were Saguru's secret desires openly mocked by the one he begrudgingly adored.

Saguru felt absolutely gutted.

Instead of wallowing in wretchedness and self-pity, however, Saguru got up the next day, put on a brave (if not, drained) face, and went to school…where things only got worse.

He arrived minutes before the bell to find that a particularly cruel classmate had seen the heist broadcasted and decided it would be amusing to add to Saguru's humiliation. On the chalkboard, someone had drawn what looked like an arrow to a western observer. Since moving to Japan, Saguru had learned that this was a nationally recognized depiction of an umbrella, and its function was similar to a heart with an arrow through it bearing the names of two lovers.

Under this umbrella was written Hakuba Saguru and Kaitou KID.

Saguru's heart broke a little more at the sight. When he'd first learned the custom, he'd giddily doodled in the margins of his notebook an umbrella sheltering the initials SH and KK. Seeing a parody of his earnest feelings displayed for the derision of others stung.

" _I wonder if Kuroba was the one who wrote this,"_ flickered through Saguru's mind, making him cringe as he went up to erase the taunting image.

He paused, hand in midair, unable to destroy the emblem of his disgrace. It hurt to have it leer at him, snickering, but the thought of wiping it out, extinguishing a symbol that had given him hope in the past, pained him too. With a sigh, he set the eraser down and turned to glare contemptuously at his classmates.

"You know," he announced levelly, keeping his cool. "The person who wrote this is a complete imbecile. KID could have nearly any woman he wanted; why on earth would he waste his time on a loser like me? If you're dumb enough to believe anything romantic could ever take place between a social reject like me and someone as popular and charismatic as KID, you'd best use the time you spend bullying said nerd on studying for next year's entrance exams."

With that, Saguru proceeded to his seat at the back of the classroom, forcing himself to keep a stoic expression in place. He couldn't let them know how deeply they'd cut him. Things would only escalate if he tipped his hand, showing them his weakness.

" _Maybe I should just go back to England now."_

…

School was agonizing, and Saguru felt more than relieved when it ended. He grabbed his bag and rushed out of the classroom ahead of the other students. At the entrance, he threw on his outdoor shoes and raced out the door…only to pause under the overhang.

It was pouring rain.

Had he been so out of it all day that he hadn't noticed the deluge right outside the window? It was perfectly possible considering Saguru's headspace had been an utter mess that day.

He checked his satchel and then sank to sit on the school steps with a tired sigh. He had already almost been late that morning when he finally decided to roll out of bed and head to class, so he hadn't spared a moment to consult the forecast, and now he was stuck in the rain with no umbrella.

He sat for a while, intending to wait it out or at least wait until the downpour let up a bit so he wouldn't have to walk home in the driving rain, but after fifteen minutes, it was beginning to seem that he was completely out of luck.

At that point, after all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, Saguru was so emotionally raw that he almost broke into sobs right there as the rest of the student body passed.

Just then a curious voice pulled him out of his dark mindset: "Waiting for your Baaya to pick you up?"

He looked up into the carefully neutral face of Kuroba Kaito. Saguru averted his gaze and muttered, "Baaya is out of town with Father for a conference…. I forgot my umbrella."

Kaito shrugged nonchalantly as he offered, "I'll walk you home. Come on."

Saguru stared for a minute, wondering if this were some kind of prank or dream.

"It's only supposed to get worse," Kaito informed, making Saguru's decision for him.

They walked in relative silence until, about a block away from the Hakuba Manor, Kaito finally spoke up, "You know, what you said today about KID not wasting time with…and then the negative way you talked about yourself…" He paused, collecting his thoughts before looking Saguru in the eye and declaring, "You're ten times as good as any of KID's crazy fangirls. I would choose you over them any day, so don't bad mouth yourself so much. You're a great guy, and KID is seriously fond of you, so…"

Not knowing what to make of more than half of what his crush had just said, Saguru grabbed on to the last bit, scoffing, "That's why he humiliates me on national television and in front of my classmates. I'm just some joke to him. He has fun flirting with me at my expense."

Kaito paused pensively for a moment and then cautiously suggested, "What would you do if you knew he was serious?"

Saguru abruptly stopped walking and stared as he demanded desperately, " _Is_ he serious?"

"KID doesn't put a ring on just anybody's finger," Kaito replied softly.

Saguru swallowed hard. "Kuroba, would you care to come inside and warm up? I have some hot chocolate…board games—video games. If the storm is only supposed to get worse, maybe you shouldn't try to walk all the way home tonight, yes?"

Kaito grinned mischievously and nodded.

The

End

…

Mikau: Man, I always end up wishing that I had just a few hundred more words to play around with for these Super Short Contests. :/ I'm six words under the maximum limit, but the ending is just a little too condensed. Well, imagine that they eat junk food, sip hot chocolate, play video and board games, and then end up actually confessing and making out a bit, okay? Okay. I hope you enjoyed it!


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